The Tip Sheet is also available on Spotify and iTunes!
Two firecracker grand finals saw the Penrith Panthers and the Newcastle Knights prevail in last gasp comebacks to secure repeat titles. For Penrith it marked a legendary 3-peat in the NRL while the Knights secured back-to-back premierships in the NRLW.
Sixties, Forty20 and Clint look at how it all went down, who starred and what pivotal moments changed the courses of both contests.
In Parramatta news, Morgan Harper has been linked to the club with the Manly castoff rumoured to be signing a train and trial deal with the Eels. It sparks a fierce conversation about recruitment in general.
The Eels are well represented in the upcoming international season with Junior Paulo and Kennedy Cherrington leading the way. Later on the conversation on the representative scene turns towards controversial selections in the Kangaross squad.
Please no more Morgan Harper and the like .enough of the cheap buys.one thing that stood out for me in grand final was blinding speed of both sides .no disrespect to Morgan but we need a couple of elite signings preferably with an abundance of speed
There has to be no doubt that speed is now an essential to be a leading club.
I just don’t know how much more patience I have with this recruitment and retention team. They had a putrid off season last year with the signings in men’s and women’s nrl. In men’s, we somehow went into the year very light on outside backs as 60s highlighted in his posts and have other obvious problems with defence and metres conceded. Have they learnt anything from this year? Have they learnt anything by watching Penrith and broncos re: outside backs and need for some strike power? If the management excuse is we simply don’t have the money for a strike player then they need to offload a forward like matto to free up money or use some bloody TPAs. Instead, everything is slow and super stingy. You can’t buy talent being super stingy and unimaginative.
On a side note: Any chance of getting mark o Neil on to answer for this shitshow? Eels management seem content to fall from top 4 team to merely fighting to make top 8 within 2 years.
Finally, notice how in gf the refs put whistle away. Parra needs to abandon the naive clean ruck mantra if they ever want to win a comp. On the big stages, we need every advantage to can get and refs aren’t going to blow any penalties.
Ron, I think we ended up putting the clean ruck away in the latter stages of the season. No doubt the officiating was never going to pull up the clubs as they should for slowing the ruck
Kudos to you all for stating the bleeding obvious in this episode.
A back handed compliment?
I didn’t mean it like that although when I read it now I concede it may read differently.
We can beat Penrith but not when it counts. Panthers would have hypothetically flogged us again in the GF this year.
Dylan Edwards unsung hero ran 300m was immense and barely mentioned. Moses Liota is a massive reason they wrestled back that game when he came back on. He’s big strong and so fast for a big guy. Junior needs to look at that performance and copy that.
Recruitment- Is THE front office. If we can’t improve the front door into the club we will be another 40 years away. If we ruin our relationship with existing players how can they give 100% if being lowballed etc Where is the accountability?
Are we just content to be a participant team or a champion team? No disrespect to players signed but they are clearly NOT what we need! Blind Freddie can see that
Rep games – I hope it doesn’t disrupt off season training. If we get any injuries we are screwed again.
Can’t really bag Broncos. Cleary pulled that out of the fire. Reynolds short drop out and Farnworth batted it back to Mitch Kenny instead of just catching it. Reynolds drop out and Cleary putting his foot into touch before catching it, 40/20 kick game.
We need better defence and speed. If we stay the same we are going backwards. We need to evolve as Panthers and Storm keep doing.
We definitely need to determine how we can achieve a title, and recruiting pace is an essential.
There needs to be a complete re examination of the recruitment process, if the current committee system is true , it’s far too slow and unwieldy for todays NRL. Prior to the so called increase of resources, sure BA signed Junior, Fergo, Sivo and Lane quickly in one off season with I think just Bernie Gurr on board.
To sign an elite player , first it needs to be identified by the coach and then a quick and decisive move to get it over the line, and pay the required amount. The need to consult a cautious committee and a possibly cautious HOF just isn’t up to speed for quick and completed moves in todays player driven market.
Hopefully, given the unbalanced squad with little backline cover for the last 2/3 seasons and no real speed signed, the club will update its methods and see the shortcomings and address them quickly. Will they? Not sure as we hear so little apart from the motherhood statements from the CEO .
The mess that was the NRLW seems aligned with similar shortcomings, so that needs addressing too.
I’ll be the broken record here. Let’s recruit a quality player or two with pace.
Could we pluck someone like Vunivalu back from Rugby Aus? Or even Koriebete who just retired from international rugby? Could also look at the Fijian Union squad, there’s talent in there too.
The Union blokes won’t fix our defensive woes but they provide speed and strength where we lack it.
We’ve got a good spine and a solid forward pack. If we don’t give them some ammo to win with, we will just be staring down the barrel of a full rebuild.
I would look to add Josh Addo-Carr. It was rumoured that the Dogs were shopping him. His pace and anticipation would add plenty.
Addo Carr is a dream, could we expect the recruitment team to be in the market for Bradman Best, gee a left side, big fast centre . MON should be in there making a decent bid even if only to push the price up for others. Of course, the best thing would be to actually sign someone like Best, now that’s a real dream given the way our recruitment team has been in the last 2/3 years.
Agree with Addo-Carr and Best.
Best is definitely up for grabs. Addo-Carr I figured was just rumour-mill, but who knows.
Sorry but I wouldn’t touch Addo Carr. One centre for me